Beginning 3D Game Development with Unity: All-in-one, multi-platform game development

Authors: Sue Blackman

Published on: May 24, 2011

ISBN: 1430234229

Price (New): $29.80 US

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Beginning 3D Game Development with Unity is perfect for those who would like to come to grips with programming Unity. You may be an artist who has learned 3D tools such as 3ds Max, Maya, or Cinema 4D, or you may come from 2D tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator. On the other hand, you may just want to familiarize yourself with programming games and the latest ideas in game production.

This book introduces key game production concepts in an artist-friendly way, and rapidly teaches the basic scripting skills you'll need with Unity. It goes on to show how you, as an independent game artist, can create casual interactive adventure games in the style of Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island, while also giving you a firm foundation in game logic and design.

The first part of the book explains the logic involved in game interaction, and soon has you creating game assets through simple examples that you can build upon and gradually expand.

In the second part, you'll build the foundations of a point-and-click style first-person adventure game—including reusable state management scripts, load/save functionality, a robust inventory system, and a bonus feature: a dynamically configured maze and mini-map.

With the help of the provided 2D and 3D content, you'll learn to evaluate and deal with challenges in bite-sized pieces as the project progresses, gaining valuable problem-solving skills in interactive design.

By the end of the book, you will be able to actively use the Unity 3D game engine, having learned the necessary workflows to utilize your own assets. You will also have an assortment of reusable scripts and art assets with which to build future games.

What you’ll learn

How to build interactive games that work on a variety of platforms

Take the tour around Unity user interface fundamentals, scripting and more

Create a test environment and gain control over functionality, cursor control, action objects, state management, object metadata, message text and more

What is inventory logic and how to manage it

How to handle 3D object visibility, effects and other special cases

How to handle variety of menus and levels in your games development

How to handle characters, scrollers, and more

How to create or integrate a story/walkthrough

Who this book is for

Students or artists familiar with tools such as 3ds Max or Maya who want to create games for mobile platforms, computers, or consoles, but with little or no experience in scripting or the logic behind games development.